Probe under way after illness kills 72 tigers in Thai tourist park

Authorities in Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand, are investigating the deaths of dozens of tigers at a popular tourist attraction this month.

Seventy-two tigers died in the span of less than two weeks across two facilities of Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai, a park where visitors can touch and interact with tigers.

The local livestock department said samples from the tigers showed canine distemper virus - though authorities have not confirmed how the outbreak happened.

Officials said on Monday that they had cremated and buried the remains of the tigers.

They were among more than 240 tigers living across the two facilities at Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai, according to local media.

"By the time we realised they were sick, it was already too late," Somchuan Ratanamungklanon, director of the national livestock department, told local media - noting that it was harder to detect sickness in tigers compared to animals like cats or dogs.

The provincial livestock office in Chiang Mai said last week that samples from the tigers' carcasses tested positive for canine distemper virus, as well as a bacteria associated with respiratory disease.

Canine distemper virus is a highly contagious disease that attacks the host's respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems. While it is typically found among dogs, it can also infect big cats - often fatally.

The provincial livestock office had earlier said preliminary tests showed the tigers had been infected with feline parvovirus. Some local officials had also initially suspected the outbreak might have stemmed from contaminated raw chicken meat fed to the tigers, the Bangkok Post reported.

Raw chicken was also suspected as the cause of a major bird flu outbreak at a tiger zoo in Chonburi province in 2004. In that case, nearly 150 tigers died or were euthanised to prevent further spread of the influenza.

The disease control department said over the weekend that while none of the veterinarians or other staff working in the Chiang Maitiger enclosures had fallen ill from canine distemper virus, they had been placed under observation for 21 days, Thai PBS reported.

Animal rights groups say this case highlights the poor living conditions of captive tigers used for entertainment in Thailand.

Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand said in a statement that the tigers' deaths exposed the "extreme vulnerability of captive wildlife facilities to infectious disease".

"Tragedies like this would be far less likely to happen" if tourists "stayed away" from these attractions, Peta Asia told AFP.

Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai has been temporarily closed for two weeks as officials carry out disinfection work.